Shooting details 'difficult' for families

Dirk Perrefortand Nanci G. Hutson

Updated 9:43 pm, Thursday, March 28, 2013

Information released Thursday shed light on the arsenal of ammunition and weapons Adam Lanza kept at his home, but it did little to help those in the Newtown community still reeling from the Sandy Hook tragedy.

Relatives of those killed at the elementary school said the details, while not new to the families, were still painful.

"The focus is now on the shooter and that's been difficult for the family," Jim Wiltsie, a cousin of slain first-grade teacher Victoria Soto, said Thursday.

"Not that they will ever heal from this, but they are still grieving and any details that come out about the shooter doesn't help that process," he said, adding that Soto's parents "are having a really bad day today in light of the information that was released."

Wiltsie said he hopes the information will put to rest some rumors circulating about the investigation, including claims that Lanza didn't use the Bushmaster rifle in the massacre.

Sandy Hook Elementary School parent Andrew Paley said he does not think the release of the warrant information at this time is "helpful for the healing process of the community," but hopes it will help in formulating new gun legislation, including requirements for background checks on anyone who purchases any weapon.

"The public has a right to know, and I can choose to read it or not and my friends can choose to read it or not," Paley said. "I think it does more harm for our healing process than good, but I know there are other families who feel differently.

Newtown schools Superintendent Janet Robinson said the new information caused people to "take a deep breath and look back on Dec. 14, and that is something they just don't need right now."

"I don't think there will ever be a good time for this," Robinson said of the search warrant revelations. "The hurt is still too fresh."

Newtown Action Alliance leader Po Murray said she finds it "shocking" that gunman Adam Lanza managed to spray two classrooms with 154 bullets from a Bushmaster .223-caliber rifle in less than five minutes and that he was loaded down with substantially more ammunition and two more handguns.

"It's shocking that they had that much ammunition and firepower in their home, that someone was legally able to purchase that amount," said Murray, who lives near the Lanzas' neighborhood. "He shot 154 bullets in five minutes! That should be enough information for our leaders to do what they need to do."

With the alliance pushing for stricter gun regulations, Murray said her hope is that the information just released will "be used to make positive changes for the future."

"If this can happen in Newtown, it can happen anywhere," Murray said.

Newtown First Selectman Pat Llodra said that while the information released may help, "that gain, however speculative, must be balanced against the hurt experienced by those in the eye of the storm."